1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner having an air conditioning unit in which air-blowing state to be blown toward first and second air-conditioning zones of a passenger compartment are independently controlled. More particularly, the present invention relative to a louver operation control for controlling a swing state of louvers of the vehicle air conditioner.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air conditioner, as shown in FIG. 40, a right center louver 603 on a right-seat side of the vehicle and a left center louver 604 on a left-seat side of the vehicle are disposed in right and left center face air outlets 601, 602, respectively, to be swung in a horizontal direction. The right and left center louvers 603, 604 are controlled to be swung in the same direction in the horizontal direction. Further, the right center louver 603 is controlled to swing in a wide swing range from a right front seat to a left front seat, and the left center louver 604 is controlled to swing in a wide swing range from the left front seat to the right front seat. Thus, temperature of air blown into a passenger compartment is made uniform.
However, in a vehicle where temperature e of air blown toward a right side and temperature of air blown toward a left side in the passenger compartment are independently controlled, when the right and left center louvers 603, 604 are controlled as described above, right-side conditioned air different from left-side conditioned air is blown from the right center face outlet 601 toward the front left-seat side, and left-side conditioned air different from the right-side conditioned air is blown from the left center face outlet 602 toward the front right-seat side. Thus, right-left side independent temperature control cannot be maintained. On the other hand, when a set temperature difference between a right-seat side air-conditioning zone and a left-seat side air-conditioning zone is larger, a temperature difference between air blown from the right center face air outlet 601 and air blown from the left center face outlet 602 becomes larger, and the conditioned air with the different temperature is alternately blown toward rear-seat sides. Further, when the right and left center louvers 603, 604 are swung as described above when sunlight enters toward only one side of the vehicle, a time for which conditioned air is directly blown toward a passenger on the one side rear seat is shorter, and air-conditioning performance for the passenger is deteriorated.
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner in which temperature of air blown toward plural air-conditioning zones is accurately independently controlled.
It is an another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner in which a set temperature difference for front seat sides is hardly affected to a passenger on a rear seat.
It is a further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner in which air-conditioning performance is improved even when sunlight enters from one side of the vehicle.
It is a further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner having plural air-blowing state chaining units, which has a reduced size and a simple structure while operation state of the plural air-blowing state changing units is looked to be nice.
According to the present invention, a vehicle air conditioner includes an air conditioning unit having a plurality of air outlets for blowing conditioned air toward plural air-conditioning zones in the passenger compartment, and the air conditioning unit is set to independently adjust air state to be blown toward the plural air-conditioning zones. In the vehicle air conditioner, an air-blowing state control unit controls operation state of the air-blowing state changing units, in such a manner that an air conditioning range of at least one air-blowing state changing unit for one air-conditioning zone is restricted at a side proximate to the other air-conditioning zone. Thus, an independent air-state control such as an independent temperature control of the vehicle air conditioner can be accurately performed.
Further, the air-conditioning range of the at least one of the air-blowing state changing units is restricted from a front-seat direction of the one air-conditioning zone to a rear-seat direction of an adjacent air-conditioning zone adjacent to the one air-conditioning zone. Therefore, conditioned air is blown toward a passenger on a front seat in the one air-conditioning zone and a passenger on a rear seat in the adjacent air-conditioning zone, while being not blown toward a passenger on a front seat in the adjacent air-conditioning zone. On the other hand, conditioned air for the one air-conditioning zone, blown toward a rear seat, is mixed with conditioned air for the adjacent air-conditioning zone, blown toward a rear seat. Thus, even when a set temperature of the one air-conditioning zone is greatly different from that of the adjacent air-conditioning zone, the set temperature difference hardly affects a passenger on the rear seat.
Preferably, the operation state of the air-blowing state changing units is controlled based on air-conditioning load including a sunlight amount and a sunlight direction entering into the passenger compartment. Therefore, even when sunlight enters into the passenger compartment from one side, air-conditioning performance can be improved.
Preferably, an actuator for driving and operating the air-blowing state changing units includes plural driving units having number smaller than number of the air-blowing state changing units. Therefore, the structure of the vehicle air conditioner can be made simple, and a size thereof is reduced. Further, the air-blowing state control unit controls the plural driving units to control swing operations of the air-blowing state changing units so that air is blown from at least one of the air outlets to be approximately symmetrical relative to a center line. Therefore, the operation state of the air-blowing state changing units is looked to be nice.
The air-blowing state control unit controls the air-blowing state changing units in such a manner that one of the air-blowing state changing units is operated with first operation patterns each having a first periodicity, the other one of the air-blowing state changing units is operated with second operation patterns each having a second periodicity, and a ratio of the first periodicity to the second periodicity is approximately an integer number. Therefore, operation performance of the air-blowing state changing units is improved.